Richard Rohr in his daily mediation on December 29 described the fixed point saying: The fixed point is our place to stand. It is a contemplative stance: steady, centered, poised, and rooted. To be contemplative, we have to have a slight distance from the world to allow time for withdrawal from business as usual, for …
This week is the week where Christmas and Christmastide collide every year. For many who celebrate a cultural Christmas, this week is full of taking down decorations, reorganizing, and decluttering in order to get ready for the New Year. For me, this is the week for basking in the light of all five candles blazing: …
This year, our Christmas tree lights have been on more often than ever before. We’ve always turned our Christmas tree on whenever we were home and this year we’ve been home a lot. This is the first year that we haven’t traveled during Christmas week. This is the first year we haven’t seen family during …
Advent is the official beginning of the church calendar. It comes before the new calendar year and for many clergy, it is the kick off to starting over in telling the good news of the coming of the Divine here on earth. This year this starting over begins at the end of a long journey …
As we brought our Christmas Tree into our house this year, I worried there wouldn’t be space for it. Our house is currently serving as a preschool, a business office, a home to four kids, two adults and two dogs, and a sanctuary during the Advent season for virtual worship services. Where would it go? …
There is so much about this holiday season that’s different. There are gatherings we can’t go to, traditions that are not safe in the midst of a pandemic, and constant changes all around us. When things feel different, sometimes I find myself retreating into the mindset “This will never get better. The holidays are ruined.” …
For the last five years, I have been either pregnant, nursing, or postpartum. It seemed like a significant moment when I took my last postpartum vitamin. It also felt strange that there was no celebration, no marker that happens after you have carried and nursed a baby. There is no fanfare or ritual that marks …
As a young, first-time pastor, I thought that hope was positivity. I thought that hope was faith that was put into action. I thought that hope was something that you hung up during Advent proclaiming the good news that the Messiah is coming. After years of pastoring, I’ve discovered hope is something that you hang …
This week, I tackled the challenge of cleaning the oven. After nine months at home cooking and preparing three meals a day, it was hard to tell what color our oven actually was. As I looked inside, I saw crumbs from pizza and movie nights every Friday, holiday pies and birthday cupcakes that got a …
We started Advent by creating space. Like many other Americans right now, our home is school, office, and home all combined into one. We couldn’t decorate or prepare our home for Christmas season without moving some things around. That moving around lead to a going through and sorting. We discarded broken toys, donated some toys …
